Well now, there was me only
yesterday saying that even the fish couldn't be bothered when a short time after
sending in our daily report the reel started screaming and off we went! We’d
been trolling with a large green and yellow rubber squid lure (hereinafter to be
known as “green killer squidy thing”) with a scary looking hook for hours
without anything showing any interest, and the next thing we know we’ve got
ourselves a rather impressive bull Mahi Mahi (Dorado). The theory goes that when
trolling from a yacht under sail, when you get a strike you should drop sail to
reduce speed and use the engine to play the fish, and when it’s knackered reel
it in. We couldn’t do that as we had the gennaker up at the time and it takes
too long to drop, so we just reeled the fish in anyway. Seemed to work. Dorado
really are a fantastic looking fish, with terrific shades of electric blue,
green and yellow on their skin which really shimmers as they are lifted out of
the water, but unfortunately the colours fade away rapidly when they die. To be
fair, if someone repeatedly bashed me over the head until I stopped wriggling I
expect I might look a bit off colour too. Talking of bashing, our technique has
improved slightly in that this time we put a rag over Mr Fishy’s head prior to
clumping him, thereby containing the yucky stuff and maintaining marital
harmony.

Anyway, we’ve now got
enough fish for a few dinners, even after allowing for all the waste that my
shockingly bad filleting leaves! We dined on dorado last night, which was very
nice indeed, and we’re looking forward to it again tonight. And tomorrow night.
And the night after. And the night….

Fishing aside, not much
else happening. At 1230 UTC today we entered the 21st day, or 3 weeks
since leaving Las Palmas. I’m not allowed to whine as you know but I had hoped
to arrive in Barbados around now or even earlier so it remains disappointing
that we’ve still got three days or so to go, not least because we’re both pretty
fed up with it all now and really would like to get off and go for a walk! Never
mind, nearly there…